1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a flywheel and more specifically to a flywheel for a device such as an internal combustion engine wherein undesirable vibration produced by the device is absorbed by a fluid body contained in the flywheel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 of the drawings shows a conventional flywheel attached to one end of a reciprocating engine crankshaft. The arrangement, while being simple and relatively easy to manufacture, suffers from the problem of possessing a relatively large moment of inertia (required to buffer undesirable torque fluctuations and vibration) and thus hampers engine acceleration especially when an automotive vehicle or the like moves off from a stationary start, at which time the load on the engine is very high. Viz., the high moment of inertia of the flywheel adds undesirably to the load on the engine which occurs when the engine speed must be raised while operating under load.
Accordingly, in order to provide adequate engine performance while smoothing out the torque delivered from the engine to the vehicle transmission, it is normally required to increase the power developed by the engine (usually by increasing the displacement thereof) so as to compensate for the load provided by the flywheel. This of course is not economical from the point of fuel economy, etc.